Police disrupt ASUU rally in Akure

AKURE — POLICE in Ondo State,
yesterday, disrupted a rally
organised by the Academic Staff
Union of Universities, ASUU, of the
Federal University of Technology
Akure, FUTA, to educate the public
on their four-month-old industrial
action.
Also, the ASUU chapter in Ondo
State owned Adekunle Ajasin
University, Akungba Akoko, were not
granted permission to hold a rally
slated for yesterday.
No fewer than 30 policemen
including Mobile officers with an
Amoured Personnel Carrier, APC,
barricaded the main gate leading to
the university, yesterday.
The ASUU members who had
planned to move to the streets with
their placards were ambushed and
stopped from moving to the streets
of Akure metropolis.
Some of the lacards displayed by the
protesting lecturers had the
following inscriptions,
‘Transformation witout education is
zero,’  ‘ASUU says no to destruction
of Public Universities.”
Others include: ‘Agreement is
agreement, Federal Government do
the right thing,’ ‘ASUU is the real
Nigeria Patriots,’ ‘Okonjo is Wahala,’
‘Jonathan Stop Playing Politics with
Education,’ amongst others.
Addressing newsmen, the FUTA
chapter chairman, Dr. Alex Odiyi
expressed disgust about the
disruption by police despite a letter
to the police command since October
17.
Dr. Odiyi said in a copy of the letter
made available to newsmen in Akure
that the rally was meant to
enlighten the citizenry on the
motive for the strike.
The rally, according to the letter
signed by the chairman and the
secretary, Dr. K. S. Adegbie was to
begin from the university gate to the
Akure Central Market.
Also speaking, the Zonal Coordinator
of ASUU, Ilorin Zone, Dr. Ayun
Adeleke said that the strike action
was as a result of government’s
refusal to honour a 2009 agreement.
Adeleke said that it was agreed then
that federal universities required
N1.5 trillion to be spread over three
years (2009-2011) to address the rot
and decay in the system.
Addressing the ASUU members, a
police officer who led the team that
stopped the protest, Adekunle
Omisakin appealed to them to
remain within their campus to avoid
miscreants from hijacking the action
to loot and cause harm.
On the failure to give permission,
the chairman of the Adekunle Ajasin
University chapter Dr Busuyi Mekusi
alleged that police in the town have
threatened to deal with them
ruthlessly if they hold the rally.